Make A Living
by Chawizawd
Summary: Hoping to get a bit of cash, Joel (OC) signs up to work at the Mystery Shack. Little does he know how many crazy misadventures are waiting for him. My first Fan-Fic! Constructive criticism and compliments would be great, I'd like to improve! Dipifica present but not prominent (because that's what people want, amirite?) Teen AU, rated T cos I'm paranoid!
1. Arrival

He was sopping wet. It shouldn't be raining like this in the summer, it wasn't natural. 'This place is weird' he thought to himself as he pushed his way through the blanket of precipitating atmosphere that surrounding him. The rough driveway eventually widened out into a fairly wide clearing that would usually be dusty and dry, but had become muddy over the course of the downpour. There was a house with a steep roof roughly in the centre, with a fuzzy column off to one side; or at least that's what it looked like through the rain. As he approached the porch, he could see some giant letters on the roof come into vision.

 _MYSTERY HACK_

Yeah, this was the right place. The _S_ in _SHACK_ had fallen off and slid down the roof, now resting precariously over the entrance to the gift shop. The porch was constructed haphazardly of wooden planks and timber posts, with an old couch sheltered underneath the corrugated iron roof.

He raced for the door, ever so anxious to get out of the rain, and pounced through it.

o00o

Dipper had been reading on Grunkle Stan's lounge chair inside, trying to figure out where the plot in his latest summer reading book was going before the door burst open. Stan had gone straight into automatic mode.

'Welcome to the Mystery - !'

'CRAP!' yelled the figure that had just burst through the door. Mabel sniggered from the table where she was trying to teach Waddles to play Bridge.

The figure backed back out of the doorway, off of the cheap rug that greeted people as they came in, which was now graced with two fresh brown stains from its feet.

'Uh, sorry about that…' it said, the voice clearly male. Stan glared at him as he scratched the back of his neck. Mabel waved dismissively.

'Just take them off and leave them outside!' she shouted. The boy obliged and retreated back onto the porch to extract his feet from his shoes.

'Hey, Grunkle Stan, who was that' Dipper asked, closing his book and throwing it onto the dinosaur skull next to the lounge.

Stan took off his fez and placed it down on the top of the T.V., 'I think he's the new employee.'

'Another one?' called Pacifica from the top of the stairs, 'What happened to Tyler?'

'Beats me. The guy left to go hang up signs in the spooky part of the forest last week and never came back. I didn't like him that much anyway. Didn't appreciate any of the art in this house.'

'By art you mean those abominations you've got set up in the museum?' Pacifica's voice rang out again.

'I swear, if you weren't part of the world's snobbiest and richest family, young lady, you'd be halfway to China by now!' yelled Stan, trying to control his anger. He was pacified once he saw a hundred-dollar bill float gently into the living room from the stairs.

Dipper rolled his eyes and let himself fall into the chair. Pacifica ran past Stan while he was distracted with his present, winking at Dipper. He watched her join Mabel at the table.

'May I come in?' asked the boy from before, poking his head around the door. Stan shoved the money into his suit pocket and cleared his throat.

'Fine, just stay off the carpet,' he said, waving a hand. As he stepped into the room, Dipper finally got a clear view of what he looked like.

He was tall, maybe a little taller than him, and had long brown hair that probably would've been lighter if he wasn't dripping wet. He wore a plaid jacket with a t-shirt underneath and a pair of jeans. He looked extremely disappointed with the state he was in, and was standing awkwardly, as if trying to fit in with the people he saw before him.

'Are you Joel?' asked Stan, hands on hips. The boy nodded. 'Welcome to the Mystery Shack.'

o00o

Joel was not sure if he felt welcomed to the Mystery Shack. He didn't really think he should be, as he hadn't made a particularly good first impression.

After removing his shoes he was finally able to come back inside and take stock of his surroundings.

It _was_ a mystery. There were weird things all over the place. There was a dodo bird on a stand near the door, a ship in a bottle on top of an empty fish-tank and a fez sitting on top of the TV cabinet, and he could even see a massive dinosaur skull. It was a very small and mismatched place, but he could tell it felt homey.

There were a couple people in the room too, who didn't look like they belonged together at all. There was Stan Pines, the manager of the Mystery Shack, wearing a suit and propping the fez from the TV up on his head, a boy about his age lying down on a chair with his legs dangling over one of the arms, and two girls up the back, one of whom was bleach blonde and wearing an expensive looking outfit that was almost entirely shades of purple and another girl who had hair much like the boy on the sofa, but had braces.

Oh, and there was also a pig that was holding a hand of playing cards in its mouth.

 _'_ _What exactly was I thinking when I signed up for this?'_


	2. Initiation

'Alright Joel, before you can start working here, we're going to need to put you through initiation,' Stan casually explained as he paced the living room. At this, the teens in the room became more aware of what was going on.

 _'_ _Initiation?'_ thought Joel, wondering if he would perhaps have to go for a walk in the forest at night, or have a fistfight with someone. His stomach turned over inside him.

Stan cleared his throat. 'First, I would like you to name the 8th to the 13th numbers in the Fibonacci sequence'

'Excuse me?' was all Joel could manage. Stan glared at him. The boy on the couch sat up, looking at him. Joel was flustered all of a sudden.

'Uhm… 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 and… 233?' he stammered. Stan nodded and turned his back to Joel.

'Excellent,' he said. 'Now, tell me, the number 3, do we really need it?'

Joel was wondering if all the questions would be about Mathematics, in which case this would be a breeze, but he still felt unsure about the old man's employment methods. Joel decided to be smart with his response this time.

'If you like triangles, then yes.' Stan looked back over his shoulder.

'Oh, I like triangles,' he replied. The boy on the couch laughed and lay back down. Joel was still in the dark about all this.

'You're doing well Joel, one more. The hot dog to hot dog bun ratio, why in the name of the Man-o-taurs do you get 10 hot-dog's in a packet but only 8 buns per bag?'

Joel was thoroughly confused by this point. 'Man-o-taurs?' he asked.

'Just answer the question!' replied Stan, turning back to face him. Joel didn't know what to say.

'Well, I guess in case someone drops a hot dog …?' he started.

'WHAT KIND OF INSUFFERABLE IDIOT DROPS A HOT DOG?' yelled Stan, grabbing Joel by the shoulders and shaking him.

'Anything is possible, sir!' he forced out as the trembling pushed the air out of his lungs. Stan stopped shaking him.

'Anything is possible,' Stan echoed. Joel took a moment to recover his breath. When he looked up again, Stan's arm was outstretched towards him in more of a friendly manner. Joel took it and Stan started shaking his hand almost as violently as he did Joel's shoulders before.

'You're hired!' he said, and the three others in the room started clapping in different ways. The boy on the sofa did a slow clap above his head as he lay, the brunette at the table applauded so energetically it shook the cards on the table around and the blonde girl smiled and shook her head.

'Sorry?' asked Joel, becoming woozy from the vibrations running up his arm as the man assaulted his extremities.

'You're hired!' he said letting go. Joel regained his balance and scratched his scalp.

'So when do I start?' he asked as Stan headed out to the gift shop.

'I'll give you half an hour to get to know this lot, and then I'll start you off,' he replied gesturing to the three others in the room. Joel looked around at the others. The boy on the couch groaned.

'Dipper, you will come over here and get thrashed by Waddles at Texas Hold 'Em and at least _attempt_ to make conversation or I will detain your girlfriend from you for –'

'Yeah, alright,' he said, trudging over to the table and pulling up a chair. He did an ' _I got my eye on you'_ gesture at the pig before sitting down. Joel still stood looking at them. The brunette girl looked quizzically up at him.

'What's the matter, new guy?' she asked, tapping her finger on her chin.

'I didn't understand a single word of what you just said,' he explained. The girl laughed.

'Oh, don't worry yourself, I'll explain as we go along. I'm Mabel, by the way, this is my brother Dipper and my best friend Pacifica,' she said, pointing at each person. The pig squealed.

'Oops, sorry,' she giggled. 'And this is Waddles, he's my best pet pig friend.'


	3. On the Job

**From now on, any questions in the reviews I'll try to answer in the story, but if I can't incorporate it in I'll just answer at the end. Enjoy this chapter!**

'Ha, full house! Ain't nobody gonna top that!' said Joel, throwing his cards down onto the table. They had since given up on Texas Hold 'em because Pacifica didn't know the rules and Joel had forgotten how to play, and were now playing a simple five-card draw game. Joel had amassed a fairly large pile of the Chipackerz™ (the Chip-flavoured crackers!) that they were using for currency, and so had Mabel. Pacifica and Dipper were both struggling, and Waddles had none, although he was undeniably in the lead, he just ate all of his when he got them.

Dipper groaned down and threw down two pairs, while Mabel and Pacifica had three-of-a-kind. They all looked at Waddles, who was holding his deal in his mouth. He pushed his head closer to the table and let go of his hand – or mouth – of cards, and Mabel turned them over and started laughing.

'Straight flush?!' asked Joel, standing up.

'Waddles brings home the bacon once again!' cheered Mabel, picking up the pig and dancing with him.

'He has to be cheating!' replied Joel, and he started to pace around behind his chair. 'Maybe he ate some sort of brain-enhancing drug that boosted his intelligence or something like that, it can't be luck, and he's a pig for Christ's sake!'

'We've been through that one before,' said Dipper, joining in with Mabel's laughter. Within a little while they were all laughing and trading stories.

'So anyway Joel, where are you from?' asked Pacifica.

'Me? I came from Tacoma up in Washington about six months ago,' he replied, gnawing on a Chipacker.

'Is it nice there?' asked Mabel.

'Yeah, it's pretty good I guess. It's bigger and colder than here, but it's nice.'

'Probably not as weird,' added Dipper.

'Yeah, that too.'

'But seriously, this town is weird as hell. There's stuff in the woods that you wouldn't dream of in –'

'Dipper!' said Mabel, 'I thought you said you wouldn't tell new people that stuff right off the bat.'

'It's not right off the bat, Mabel, we played cards for 3 hours straight and now were telling stories.'

'Wait, three hours?' replied Joel. 'Stan said he would get me in half an hour! I completely forgot!'

'Oh, don't worry about Stan,' said Mabel, waving her hand dismissively. Joel looked confused.

'He won't pay me though, I haven't been working!'

'Who said you haven't been working?' said a voice from behind him. Joel wheeled around. It was Stan.

'Uh, Mr Pines, I thought you said you'd set me to work after half an hour.'

'I did,' was the response.

'No, you didn't!' Joel retaliated.

'Look kid, being adamant in this joint isn't going to get you anywhere. "Work" isn't necessarily mopping and sorting through the merchandise, I've got other jobs as well.'

'Like what?'

'Like I could get you to wash my car or fix the antennae on the roof. We've already got someone on the register, plus these three here, so "working" could be anything.'

'But you still didn't give me a job to do…' Joel persisted.

'You've been entertaining these three while I manage the gift shop, that's a job in of itself and a pretty difficult one at that.'

'Wait, you're paying me to play cards with people my age?' asked Joel. Stan simply cocked his head to the side.

'Yeah, I suppose I am. Now, are you going to accept it or not?'

Joel was still confused, but he was happy too. He was being _paid_ to hang out with people. What a job! Although he'd still have to mop and clean and all that jazz, he'd at least be able to have fun.

'I guess?' he replied. Stan reached into his pocket and pulled out the hundred dollar bill that he had been given earlier. Pacifica started laughing and Stan shrugged at her.

'What, it's not my money,' he said to her. Pacifica stuck her tongue out at him.

Joel gingerly took the money from the man's hands and looked at it.

'What's wrong kid, you never seen a green-back before?'

'I've never owned one before,' he sputtered, 'Are you sure about this, Mr Pines.'

'Just hurry up and take it kid, before I change my mind. I like you, Joel, you're different from the employees we've had before, and that's just a little incentive for you to stay. Plus, you aced the initiation test, so I gotta pay you back somehow.'

Joel smiled sadly up at the old man, 'Thank you Mr Pines, I'll be back tomorrow.'

'Aww, you're leaving?' asked Mabel. Joel nodded.

'Yeah, I'll have to go in a minute. Mom will not be happy if I'm not home in time for dinner.'

'But I haven't told you about the time that Dipper met some ghosts at the old convenience store and had to –'

'Shut up, Mabel!' hissed Dipper, clamping her mouth shut with his hand.

'Do you want me to drive you home?' asked Pacifica, standing up.

'Yeah, thanks,' he replied, 'I'll go out and put my shoes on.'

Pacifica nodded and went out into the gift shop. Joel said goodbye to the twins and went out onto the porch. Dipper took his hand off Mabel's mouth and straight away she started to speak.

'I think he's cute,' she said, drumming her figures on the table. Dipper rolled his eyes.

'Mabel, you think every guy is cute.'

She blew a raspberry at him. 'I didn't think Gideon was cute,' she said.

'He wasn't a guy, he was a monster. Plus, we're fifteen now Mabel, you can't just go around dating every guy you meet.'

'Aww, come on Dipper! Just this once! I really like Joel, he's awkward and clueless and funny! And probably clever enough that he won't disappear into the forest.'

'Ugh, fine, but it's not my fault if you end up in some mess.'

'Thanks Dip!' she said, racing out of the room and up the stairs.

o00o

Pacifica's phone buzzed as she left through the gift shop door. She took it out and looked at the new text.

 _'_ _When you get back come up to my room, I've got something I want to talk to you about!'_

Pacifica rolled her eyes. She'd seen this text before. Mabel was taking a liking to Joel.

 _'_ _Yeah, I'll ask him the usual questions in the car.'_

She stowed her phone back in her pocket and went around to get the car.

o00o

Joel turned around from putting his shoes on as a car pulled up behind him. It was a small and simple pink hatchback. Pacifica rolled down the window.

'You ready to go?' she called. Joel thought for a minute to see if he could remember anything he'd forgotten, but nodded his head. Stepping down onto the now dry dirt, he started to make his way to the car but Pacifica stopped him.

'You might want to jump up and down a little,' she said. Joel looked quizzically at her.

'Just do it.'

Joel obliged and as he jumped he got shorter. He had had a massive crust of dried mud on his shoes, and it was now crumbling to pieces as he stamped his feet on the ground. He looked apologetically up at the girl in the car.

'Just be glad I noticed. I would've killed you if you left a layer of dust and grime in my ride.'

Joel laughed and got into the car. His first day at the Mystery Shack had been the best since he arrived in Gravity Falls.

You bet he'd be coming back.

 **Now, question time.**

 **LimitlessHorizon asked what age the characters are – Joel is 16, Dipper, Mabel and Pacifica are 15 (I guess Pacifica can drive cos Blubbs and Durland are too scared of the NW's to do anything about it). Wendy will be 18 when she comes in, and everyone else will be about 3 years older as well.**

 **Please leave a review with feedback, I know the story is still developing, but anything helps. Thanks!**


	4. Change of Tactics

Mabel lay on her bed waiting for Pacifica to get back. She'd had this conversation with her many times before, and usually they would sit scheming in her room for a couple of hours or so until they figured out a plan. She could be sure that Dipper wouldn't come in because he was watching a marathon re-run of Duck-tective on the TV that wasn't scheduled to finish until after eight.

A car pulled up outside. Mabel ran over to the window and saw Pacifica get out. She rubbed her hands together and ran downstairs.

Pacifica came in through the gift shop. She stopped at the mirror to see if her hair was alright.

'I'm back Wendy,' she said to the girl behind the register, throwing the keys onto the counter. Wendy grunted and continued reading her magazine. Pacifica headed through the 'Employee's only' door, took off her jacket and hung it on one of the chairs at the table. Mabel met her at the bottom of the stairs.

'So, how'd it go?' she asked as they climbed.

'He said you were … erratic,' Pacifica replied.

'Good, that gives me plenty to work with!'

They entered the attic and Mabel sat down on the floor, opening her notebook. Pacifica sat down on Dipper's bed.

'Alright Paz, give me the run-down,' said Mabel, grabbing a pen and opening to a new page.

'He's 16, an only child and has a rocky relationship with his parents,' Pacifica began, lying back down on the bed.

'Ok, next.'

'As he said, he's from Tacoma in Washington, and his favourite pastimes include ten-pin bowling, board games and watching TV.'

'Keep going Paz, I'm keeping up.'

'Mabel, how many times have we done this now?' she asked out of nowhere. Mabel looked up at her, chewing on her pen.

'What do you mean?'

'You know,' said Pacifica, gesturing at the ceiling, ' _this_. It's like stalking, it's kinda creepy.'

'Psh, don't worry yourself. We're not going over the top, you're just overreacting.'

'I'm not, Mabel! Joel is a decent guy, why don't you just get to know him yourself?'

'Getting to know people is boring,' replied Mabel, doodling on her piece of paper.

'That's just it, Mabel! Did you ever wonder why none of your boyfriends last for long? It's because you don't get to know them! Dipper and I had known each other for more than a year before we went out on our first date, and you met Joel less than six hours ago!'

Mabel said nothing. Pacifica sat up and looked at her. There were water droplets forming in her eyes.

'Aww, geez, I'm sorry Mabel,' she said, getting down onto the floor to comfort her. Mabel looked at Pacifica with her teary eyes.

'Just… just another rant, hey Paz…' she said before breaking down into tears. Pacifica put an arm around her shoulder to cheer her up.

'Come on Mabel, it's alright. I didn't mean any of that stuff…' she started.

'Yes you did!' interrupted Mabel, bawling her eyes out, 'I know you're right! All along I've been trying too hard to get a boyfriend that I've never tried to be friends with a boy!'

Pacifica moved away a little and took Mabel by the shoulders, looking her in the eye.

'Mabel, you really like Joel, don't you?' she asked. Mabel wiped away some of the tears and nodded.

'So give him a chance, get to know him a little better! Trust me, it'll be a lot easier to decide if you really like him or not after a while, rather than going with your gut feeling straight away. Ask the questions yourself.'

'Thanks Paz,' sniffed Mabel. Pacifica got up and threw a box of tissues at her.

'Minimum two weeks,' she said as she made for the door, leaving the crying girl on the floor.

'Minimum two weeks what?' asked Mabel. Pacifica smiled at her.

'Until I give you permission to ask him out,' the blonde said as she left the room.

Mabel laughed. She wiped the last of the tears away, tore out the piece of notepad paper, scrunched it up and threw it into the bin.

o00o

Dipper was sitting on the couch marathon watching Duck-tective. The entire of the second season was being re-run, and Dipper was all stocked up on nachos and soda to get him through the night. Stan was sitting at the table pretending to play Solitaire, but in the end he couldn't resist the temptation and ended up watching too.

Pacifica came in from the stairs and sat down on the floor in front of Dipper's legs, using them as a back rest.

'Hey,' she said, nestling her head in between his knees. Dipper looked down at her.

'Hi,' he replied. Stan cleared his throat from the table and both of them looked at him.

'You two better tell me if you're going to get mushy, because I don't want to stick around to be a witness,' he said, moving some of the cards around. Dipper went red but Pacifica stayed calm.

'Don't worry Mr Pines, I'm going to need to head back home soon, or I'll have to risk Jeremy coming to remove me from the premises.'

'Fair enough,' replied Stan, pretending to play cards once again, 'Is Mabel alright?'

'Why do you ask?' said Pacifica, turning back to the TV.

'I heard her crying upstairs, I was going to go up but she stopped before I'd finished debating about whether I should get up or not.'

'She's fine,' Pacifica replied, 'We just had a little chat, that's all.'

'About what?' asked Dipper, reaching over to the bowl of corn chips and offering them to Pacifica.

'She wants to get together with Joel, but I told her she should try to make friends with him first,' she said, taking a chip from the bowl and throwing it into her mouth.

'And she asked you to get to know him so you could pass on the information,' Dipper discerned.

'You got it, nerd boy,' she said. Dipper responded by crossing his legs around her so she couldn't get out. Stan gathered the cards up and shuffled them together.

'Right, I've seen enough,' he said, leaving the room. Dipper groaned.

'Always one to jump to conclusions,' he said. Pacifica tilted her head back and smiled at her boyfriend.

'Can you let me go now please?'

'Do I have to?' he teased.

'Um, yeah, because otherwise Jeremy is going to come down here and I'll get a beating from my parents.'

At this Dipper quickly untangled his legs from her, 'There, you're free.'

She stood up and looked at the clock.

'Shit, it's late. I gotta go Dip, I'll seeya tomorrow.'

'Bye Paz,' he said, trying to look around her at the TV. Duck-tective's old partner Steve was having an argument with the Officer, and he didn't want to miss it.

'You're so the least romantic person I've ever met,' Pacifica said. She bent down and kissed him on the cheek, grabbed her jacket off the chair and went out into the gift shop. Wendy had, thankfully, hung her keys up on the wall out of reach of the pig. She grabbed them and headed out the door.

Dipper reached over to pour himself another cup of Pitt Cola when Mabel walked in.

'Hey sis,' he said, instinctively grabbing a second cup. Mabel smiled at him and sat down on the floor.

'You alright?' he asked, pouring her a cup. Mabel simply nodded and accepted her drink from her brother.

'I'm fine Dipper,' she said, leaning up against the dinosaur skull and sipping the soda, 'I'm fine.'

 **Whoa, that was a long chapter. I hope you guys like it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'd love it if you could leave reviews with suggestions or questions, and I hope the story will get better and better. Joel will be back again next chapter.**


	5. Interruption

**This chapter is kinda a bunch of bits and pieces, but I still like it. Another long one for you guys.**

The bell on the door to the Mystery Shack gift shop rung as Joel called in for work early the next day. He hadn't been in the gift shop before. All the items were displayed on shelves around the edge of the room and the door to the rest of the house was opposite the entrance.

'Can I help you?' asked the girl behind the counter. She was tall, wore a lumberjack cap and a corduroy jacket. She looked extremely bored and had a pile of magazines on the counter.

'I'm Joel,' he said, 'the new employee.'

'Oh, ok,' she replied, standing up. She held out her hand and Joel shook it.

'I'm Wendy, and I'm your new boss.'

'Huh?' replied Joel. Wendy smiled at him and sat back down.

'I'm just pulling your string. I've been working at this place for three years though, so if you wanna know the ins and outs, come to me.'

Joel relaxed a little, he liked this girl. 'Ok, thanks,' he said, 'would you happen to know where Stan is?'

'Yeah, he's probably out in the living room. Keep your eyes wary though, he tends to not wear as many clothes as some of us would like.'

Joel frowned back at Wendy.

'Ah, it's not that bad, usually he just tromps around in a singlet and shorts, you won't go blind.'

Joel gave the thumbs up and headed out through the door. Sure enough, Stan was sitting in the lounge chair, glued to the TV. Luckily he was wearing a dressing gown. There was some old soap opera movie playing, and Joel snickered at the idea of a man like Stan watching old lady movies.

'Mr Pines?' he said, as least intrusively as possible. Stan did not react straight away.

'Mr Pines?' Joel repeated, louder this time. Stan made an incomprehensible noise of acknowledgement.

'What am I doing this morning?' he asked. Stan muttered something to him and pointed to the stairs.

'Ok, Mr Pines, whatever you say…' Joel said as he crept past and snuck up the stairs to the attic.

o00o

'Dipper, I am the Monopoly king, there's no way you're going to beat me.'

Dipper scratched his head and looked at his small pile of property and money. He'd managed to buy out both Park Lane and Mayfair, but Mabel owned almost everything else. Dipper had been waiting for three trips around the board for Mabel to land on his apartments but it didn't seem like it was going to happen.

'Ok, I'm mortgaging Kings Cross,' Dipper replied, flipping over one of the station cards and collecting the money from the bank. There was a knock at the door.

'What is it Grunkle Stan?' asked Mabel.

'Stan's downstairs, it's me,' Joel's voice replied. Mabel got up and opened the door.

'Hi Joel!' she said, letting him in. Joel scanned the room. It was built into the roof, and the walls sloped down at the sides. There were two beds on either side of a window, one that a collection of posters up on the wall above it and another that was unmade and had a pile of books on the ground next to it. It wasn't hard to tell which bed belonged to which twin.

'Why are you here so early?' Dipper asked, counting up his Monopoly money. Joel sat down and looked over the board.

'I went through a bit of a rough spot with Mom and Dad last night, they wanted to know why I'd stayed out so late. I went to bed before the arguing got too intense, and I just thought I'd hang out here today to give them time to recover.'

'Are you OK?' asked Mabel, sitting back down in front of her assets. Joel smiled at her and nodded.

'Yeah, I'm alright. I think I'm more worried about Stan. I walk in this morning and he's sitting on the couch wearing a bath robe and glued to some 1940's drama movie.'

'He's waking up,' the twins said in unison. 'Stan gets up early but isn't functional until about an hour later, so usually he just sits on the couch or something until he's awake,' Mabel elaborated.

Joel watched as Dipper and Mabel continued their game. Dipper rolled a 5 and landed on a community chest tile.

'Advance to go! That's helpful!' he said, putting the card underneath the pile and travelling halfway around the board to the GO corner.

Mabel rolled a 3 and was sent to jail.

'Aw nuts!' she said. Joel started to laugh, 'This is your fault - I start losing as soon as you get here.' She shoved him playfully.

'Ok, sorry! I promise you'll roll doubles next turn!' he replied.

o00o

Joel was mopping the floor in the Mystery Shack. It was about midday and there were a couple of tourists in the museum that Joel could hear being lectured by Stan. Pacifica was behind the counter with Wendy, looking at some magazines.

'Joel, could you come and tell me if you think this would look cute on Mabel?' the blonde asked. Joel threw the mop into the bucket.

'I'm a guy, I can't tell what's cute and what's not,' he replied, walking over to them. It was a summer dress, with simple stitching and looked quite light, but was all the colors of the rainbow.

'Yeah, it's pretty I guess,' he said. Pacifica smiled at him. 'Thanks Joel!' she said, running off and making for the stairs. Before she could get there though, Dipper's voice called out from the break room.

'Paz, could I borrow you for a sec?'

'Yeah, gimme a minute Dipper, I'll be down shortly.'

Pacifica raced up the stairs with the magazine. Joel went back to his mop and resumed his work.

'What was that all about?' he asked Wendy. She shrugged.

'No idea,' she said, putting her feet up on the counter and opening up the latest issue of _Avoid Eye Contact Monthly_.

o00o

Joel sat on the floor in the gift shop, fiddling with a grappling hook Wendy had found in one of the boxes behind the counter. The bell rang and Stan came in through the door.

'Ugh, those people are such _idiots_ ,' he said, removing his fez and putting it down next to the register. Wendy rolled her eyes.

'Which people?' asked Joel. Stan went over to one of the shelves and started to organize some of the merchandise.

'The tourists of course,' he replied, 'I just spent 15 minutes trying to explain to them that the _Rock-that-looks-like-a-face_ rock wasn't an actual face, but it's a rock.'

'So it's not a face?' Joel asked. Stan glared at him.

'Alright, I'm sorry!' he said as his boss straightened up his bow-tie.

'Speaking of idiots,' Stan continued, 'has anyone seen Dipper? His shift started five minutes ago and I haven't seen him since breakfast. I swear, if he's gone out on another monster hunting adventure…'

'I'm on it,' said Joel, pulling himself to his feet and heading through the door to the house. He knew roughly where the break room was, but it was out of the way so it took him a little while to find it, but he got there eventually.

'Dipper, it's five past three, you'd better –'

Joel had walked into the break room to see Dipper and Pacifica spread across the sofa, attacking each other's faces. The shock rendered him immobile. Apparently they didn't hear him, as they continued what they were doing. Joel stood there with his mouth half open trying to look away. He had completely forgotten that Pacifica had disappeared too, and had been unfortunate enough to barge in on the two entwined figures spending quality time together.

Pacifica's eyes fluttered open for the briefest of moments to catch a glimpse of Joel standing in the doorway.

'Shit!' was all she could manage as she tore herself away from Dipper's mouth and knelt up on the couch. Dipper looked towards the doorway and reacted similarly.

An awkward silence fell between them that seemed to last an age, before Joel managed to squeak 'shift' just loud enough for Dipper to hear. Dipper's eyes filled with realization and got up and bolted out the door.

Pacifica and Joel stayed silent for quite a while afterwards as they listened to Stan yell at Dipper about being on time to work in the background.

'Sorry about that…' she said. Joel snapped back into reality and shook his head.

'Just make sure to lock the door next time.'

 **Satisfied yet, shippers? (I suck at writing intimacy, but what can I say)**


	6. Nightmare - Part 1

'So whadda you say?'

Joel mulled over his options. Dipper had invited him on what he called an 'adventure'. Joel had assumed they would just be going into the forest and mucking around for a while until they got tired and came back. However, apparently they were going "ghost harassing", and Joel was still unsure about what that meant.

'What were we "hunting" again?' asked Joel.

'Oh, this thing,' replied Dipper, pulling a book from inside his vest and opening it up. He flipped to a page of with a drawing of a man with utensils for fingers that was labelled 'Category 9' and 'Dream Hipster'.

'I've seen that guy before!' said Joel. Dipper's eyes lit up.

'Where?'

'It was… oh, man, I can't remember. Something about Elm trees.'

'Anyway, we're going out later to track it, you want to tag along.'

Joel thought about it for a moment.

'Yeah, sure, why not.'

o00o

Joel, Dipper, Mabel, Pacifica and Wendy were all gathered around Dipper's bed. Joel had called his parents and told them that he wouldn't be home that night and that he was staying over at the Mystery Shack – which was probably a good thing considering they might still be angry at him for leaving so early that morning. Dipper had a list and was checking off everything that they would need.

'Flashlights.'

'Check,' said Pacifica, holding up the torch.

'Energy drinks.'

'Check,' said Joel, who had the energy drinks in his backpack along with his own torch and a bunch of other things Dipper had insisted they bring.

'Grappling hook.'

'Check!' said Mabel, aiming the grappling hook at the ceiling and shooting it so she flew up and hung off one of the rafters.

'Axe.'

'Check,' said Wendy, gesturing at her belt.

'And, I've got the Journal, check. We're all set, people, just remember that when we get there we can't fall asleep.'

They all clambered down the stairs and started following a road into the forest. Dipper was fairly sure he knew where he was going, but after a while Joel started to worry that they were getting lost.

'Why did we have to come at night?' he asked.

'Because it only shows itself at night,' Dipper replied.

'Do you still know where we are?' asked Wendy, holding up the rear of the group.

'Of course. I came down this way to save Mabel from a horde of possessive little men that tried to marry her, so naturally I should remember.'

Joel started to speak but Wendy just held up her hand.

'Don't ask…' she said. This was getting weird. Not that Joel minded, but Dipper seemed a little delusional.

After a little more walking, they left the road and came to an area of the forest that seemed to glow with a blue-green hue. There were mushrooms all over the ground, and the rocks seemed to emanate energy. They regrouped once they got to a small clearing.

'Ugh, this place brings back memories,' said Mabel, pulling at her hair. Dipper rolled his eyes.

'Ok, it's not far until we get there. Does everyone know what to do?'

'Follow you, keep the flashlights on and don't fall asleep,' said Pacifica.

'And don't die,' Dipper added.

o00o

They had been walking for a while now. The glowing forest had long since disappeared and they were all beginning to panic. Pacifica had latched onto Dipper's arm and Mabel, Wendy and Joel were all huddled together behind them. The trees here were thinner, but more numerous – it was like walking through a forest of needles.

'Dipper, are we there yet?' asked Mabel. Dipper didn't reply. He had stopped ahead of them.

'Dipper…?' she said again, but Joel put a hand over her mouth, pointing past Dipper into the forest beyond them.

Pacifica's flashlight threw a beam deeper into the trees and illuminated a tall figure standing in the distance. He had his head bowed and was wearing brown hat and a dirty red and green striped sweater. The five of them stood in silence for a few seconds.

'Come to Freddy…' the figure said, taking its hands out from behind its back and revealing the mismatched metal fingers.

Time seemed to slow down as they ran. All of them had forgotten the plan and bolted. The trees, if you could call them that, seemed to be twisted and closing in on them. The path was dark and jagged. The world was a blur as they ran. As Joel pushed his legs to their limits, he heard a voice ring out from the depths.

'Hey, Joel…' it said, mockingly. Joel looked around wildly and saw the horribly burnt body of the ghost flying alongside him, a manic grin painted on his face.

'No running in the forest!' it said. Joel pulled back as the monster receded into the darkness. It reappeared ahead, laughing at them.

'GONNA GET YOU!' it said, vanishing once again. The echoes of its laughter filled the word, a blur streaking past them as they ran.

'DIPPER, WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO?' Wendy screamed back at him.

'NOTHING, CORDUROY! YOU'RE ALL MY CHILDREN NOW!' the voice screeched back at them. He materialized ahead of them again and blocked their path. Joel slid to a halt and Mabel bumped into him while Dipper and Pacifica pulled up next to them. The creature raised its metal hand and grinned wildly at them.

'I'M GOING TO CUT YOU IN TWO!' he screamed at them. Mabel wrapped her arms around Joel as the creature raised its arm above its head. Joel closed his eyes and held tight onto Mabel.

'EAT YOUR WORDS, SUCKER!' yelled Wendy from behind the creature. She brought her axe around and sliced straight through the creature's neck. Joel opened his eyes just in time to see its head shriek as it lost contact with its neck. The force of the blow knocked the decapitated skull into the trees, still screaming. The body twitched and stumbled as it fell to the ground, green ooze spilling from between its shoulders.

o00o

Joel sat up with a start. He was breathing heavily. Did that just happen? He was back in the forest, but it looked friendlier. He could see the glow of the gnome forest behind him. Looking up, he found that Mabel had her arms wrapped around his stomach and was restless in her slumber. He shifted up against the boulder he was leaning on so that her head could rest on his thigh.

'Are you alright, Joel?'

Joel looked up and saw Wendy standing over him. Her jacket was ripped in places and her hair was messy. She held her axe over her shoulder and the end of it was dripping with sludge…

'Did… did that just happen?' Joel asked. Wendy threw her axe down. She went over and sat on a tree stump.

'I don't know, but that… _thing_ isn't coming back any soon. Chuck us an energy bar, it's still best to be safe and stay awake.'

Joel reached over to his bag, which had fallen off his shoulder. He unzipped it, threw Wendy an energy bar and got one out himself. They ate together in silence.

'You look like a wreck, dude,' Wendy commented, smiling at him. Joel looked down at himself and saw that his clothes weren't fairing much better than Wendy's.

'Well, I'm not alone,' he said. All the others clothes were also ripped in places, Pacifica especially – her jacket was lying on the ground a couple of feet from where she was completely torn in two.

'NO!' screamed Dipper. He jolted upright, reacting similarly to how Joel had when he had woken up. He looked around.

'You right?' asked Joel. Dipper looked over at him.

'Yeah… yeah, I think I am…' he said, looking down at Pacifica. She was tossing and turning in her sleep. Joel threw an energy bar at Dipper.

'Thanks,' he said, biting into the chocolate. He ran his fingers through Pacifica's hair.

'What happened, Dipper?' asked Wendy. Dipper looked up at her with teary-eyes.

'The ghost, the _nightmare_ , he cornered me and Paz, and then…' he began before looking down at Pacifica and starting to sob.

'Oh my God…' Joel said, looking down at the blonde. At that moment, she shot up onto her hands and knees, her chest heaving.

'Paz!' said Dipper, 'You're alright!'

'Dipper!' she said, turning around and pulling him into an embrace, 'I'm so glad you're OK…'

Once the four of them had settled down, the attention returned to Mabel. She still hadn't woken up, and was looking more restless than ever.

After a few minutes, Dipper had been about to stand up when Mabel screamed. Joel immediately brought his hands up to his ears and blocked out the sound best he could, but he was happy because Mabel was waking up.

But she didn't open her eyes. She stopped moving and lay still.

'Oh my God, oh my God, please be alright,' said Joel, gently shifting her so that she lay on the ground. The others came over and Wendy bent down and placed her fingers on Mabel's neck.

'She's alive,' she said, 'You know what we have to do, Dipper.'

Dipper nodded and started flicking through his Journal. Wendy pulled a phone out of her pocket. She moved around a little until she could get reception. Once she had bars, she dialled a number and put it up to her ear, gesturing and Joel and Pacifica to pick Mabel up.

'Yeah, hi, we need your help,' she said into the phone, pacing a circle. A pause.

'No, it's important. Mabel is in trouble, Stanley.'

 **Hello everyone! This chapter is definitely my favorite** **so far, and set to be a 2 or 3 parter, so keep your eyes peeled!**

 **In case you didn't know, the 'dream hipster' is based off of Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street, which is both the name I give him, where I get his lines from and the namesake of this chapter.**

 **Get keen to see Bill in the next couple of chapters!**

 **Also, thank you to Cal-Pal for your review, I'm glad you're enjoying it =)**


	7. Nightmare - Part 2

Stanford Pines was not a night-bug. He would prefer to go to sleep earlier and get up later, get those annoying kids out of his head for a couple of hours so he could spend time with his own thoughts and dreams. Of course, more often than not, something would get in his way. Perhaps Mabel might've cooked up an extra strong batch of Mabel juice before she went to bed and Stan would have to intervene before she destroyed half the house, or Pacifica might've come around for a sleepover after an episode with her parents, or –

'Mr Pines! Get up!'

Stan rolled over. Not this time. Oh no, he was not getting out of bed this time to fix whatever… wait, whose voice was that? None of the kids called him Mr Pines.

'Please, Mr Pines, it's urgent. Mabel is in a bad way.'

'Wendy?' replied Stan, immediately up onto his feet. He had fallen asleep on the couch, so fortunately Wendy hadn't had to run the gauntlet of his room. He felt around for his slippers and put them on.

'What's wrong with…?' he began, but stopped once he saw Mabel spread-eagled out on the floor. Pacifica and Joel had already started to gather candles and Dipper was reading through the Journal.

'What happened?' asked Stan, getting up.

'While we were out we ran into a Category 9 Dream Hipster, and he somehow pulled us into this nightmare that we nearly died in,' explained Dipper as he set up the candles. Joel lifted Mabel up off the ground and sat her down on the chair. Stan stared at Dipper.

'Dream Hipster?' he asked.

'Yeah, some mean looking dude with either bad hygiene or a really disgusting skin condition and kitchen utensils for fingers.'

'Freddy…' replied Stan, looking down at the ground, 'I'll be right back.'

Stan raced out of the room and Dipper finished setting up the candles. Pacifica grabbed a lighter from the kitchen and by the time Stan got back, dressed in his Hawaiian shirt. Dipper looked incredulously at him.

'What, a human mind is cold, I don't wanna get frostbite.'

'Are we going into her _mind_?' asked Joel.

'Correct. Myself - and Stan as well, clearly – are the only people here who've been inside someone's mind before. So just follow my lead.'

They all placed their hands on Mabel's forehead and Dipper began to read the enchantment from the Journal.

 _Fidentus Omnium_

 _Magister Mencium!_

 _Magnesium Adharminum!_

 _Magnum Opus!_

 _Habius Corpus!_

 _Insectus Nominus Overratus!_

 _Magister Mencium!_

 _Magister Mencium!_

 _MAGISTER MENCIUM!_

The space around them grew hot and blue. The others eyes lit up and Mabel's eyelids lifted, her pupils rolling back into her head. Everything went white.

o00o

As Joel's vision returned, he found himself sitting on the ground outside a fairground. However, something was wrong. There was no color. The signs were filled with strange letters and symbols rather than words, and the world seemed to twist in directions that shouldn't be possible. There was nobody around– the fairground seemed to be deserted. Stan had been right – it was cold. He tightened his jacket around him, trying to seal up the rips from earlier so that they wouldn't let in any cool air. He looked around and saw his friends scattered about the place, also recovering from the dimensional transition.

'So what's the plan, Dipper,' asked Stan. Dipper looked thoughtfully up at the fairground.

'We're looking for something that shouldn't be here. It could be that _thing_ that called itself Freddy, or something else that we don't know about.'

'What if it's Bill?' Stan continued. Dipper looked back at him.

'Bill is gone, Stan.'

This meant nothing to Joel he was still trying to figure out where he was.

'Ugh, it's so cold here,' said Pacifica, hugging herself for warmth. Dipper snapped his fingers and a fur coat appeared around her shoulders.

'Whoa!' Wendy exclaimed. Dipper looked weirdly at her.

'You just made a jacket appear out of nowhere!' said Wendy, pointing at Pacifica. Stan face palmed as he realized what Dipper had done.

'Or course, I completely forgot,' he said, clicking his fingers too, making his suit materialized over his body.

'I want powers too!' pouted Pacifica. Dipper rolled his eyes.

'We're in the mind, people. You can conjure whatever you can conceive in here. Just think of stuff and it'll happen.'

Joel looked down at his jacket and imagined that it was repaired. Sure enough, all the holes fixed themselves up and it looked brand new.

'Sweet!' he said. Joel decided to take it to the next level. He willed himself up into the air, and as he did it happened. It took him a while to get used to the sensation, but he got it eventually. Wendy created a hover board that she was now using to slice through the air.

'HOW ARE YOU GUYS DOING THAT?' screamed Pacifica. Joel laughed.

'You need to be more open minded!' he yelled back. Pacifica looked down at her shoes and they transformed into jet-pack boots, blasting her off into the sky.

'WAAAAAAHHHH!' she screamed. Dipper joined Joel and Wendy in the air and yelled up at her.

'Don't think about it too much! Just relax!'

It took Pacifica a good five minutes to get used to the sensation of flying. Once she had the hang of it, they headed into the fairground. The eeriness was incredible – Joel was so used to fairgrounds being filled with children and color and noise, but this place was cold and desolate. The stalls were empty, the ticket booths unattended and the rides creaking at their joints.

Walking through the sideshow area, a ghostly skeleton on a unicycle appeared ahead of them, juggling as its head tilted back and forth. They all stopped. Dipper swung his arm around and threw a fireball at the skeleton, vaporizing it when it hit.

'Are we safe now?' asked Pacifica. At that moment, another skeleton appeared, this time wearing a top hat, behind the counter of one of the arcade games. It leaned forward on the bench top and gestured for them to come over.

'STEP RIGHT UP!' boomed a voice that seemed to fill the space around them rather than coming from it's mouth, 'SPEND EIGHT BUCKS TO NOT GET A DOG!'

It started to cackle and Dipper threw another fireball, setting the stall on fire and engulfing the laughing bones in flames. Almost instantly, the ground started to shake and more skeletons appeared, crawling from around corners and out of stalls. They all tried to find something to hang onto, but Dipper called out from above them.

'Stay in the air, they can't get you!'

Joel looked up to see Dipper hovering in the air. He willed himself off the ground and flew up to join him, and Wendy, Pacifica and Stan soon followed suit. They watched as the skeletons congregated on the ground below them, climbing on top of one another, reaching up for them.

'Why is this happening?' asked Pacifica, looking down at the mess of bone and marrow below her. Dipper was wracking his brain trying to come up with answers.

'I don't know!' he replied. They huddled together and flew further into the sky as the tower of skeletons grew taller, more of the fairground catching on fire, 'We still don't know who is behind all this, either!'

'I'M HAPPY TO ANSWER THAT FOR YOU!' replied a sinister, all-to-familiar voice behind them.

 **No prizes for guessing who this 'all-to-familiar' voice is.**

 **I don't really like this chapter much, it was more of a filler.**

 **Stay tuned for the final part, should be up soon!**


	8. Nightmare - Part 3

'Well, well, well! It's been a while!'

It was him. Uh, wait a minute, Joel had never seen this… thing before. He was a… triangle? His yellow coloring and pattern made him look like a pyramid, with a single eye, bow tie and top hat – no, he HAD seen it. Where was it?

'How did you -?' Stan began. The triangle waggled its finger and Stan's mouth turned into a zipper that he couldn't open.

'Uh, uh, uh!' it mocked. The creature put its hands on – well it looked like where its hips would be. What should Joel call it, his vertices?

'You always were a loudmouth, Crescent, and I get the feeling you've exceeded your quota for a while!'

Wendy stifled a yell as one of the skeletons that they had forgotten about grabbed her ankle. The triangle rolled its eye.

'Oh, right! I almost forgot!' he said, snapping his fingers. The skeletons crumbled to the ground in a heap of bone. The area around them flashed white and in an instant they were in an amphitheater with a massive striped tent erected that covered the whole thing – a circus.

'Let's get down to business!' the triangle, reclining in the air. 'Pine Tree, Crescent, Ice Bag, Llama and… oh, who's this!'

The creature whizzed through the air towards Joel. He narrowed his eye and flew around him.

'Who is this?' he asked. Nobody answered. They were all looking at Joel in shock.

'I SAID, WHO IS THIS?' he demanded, bouncing up and down with rage. Pacifica cleared her throat.

'J – Joel,' she stammered.

'I see! Good, strong build, in good health, has a rocky relationship with his parents, enjoys playing board games, ten-pin bowling –' he began, making a complete evaluation of Joel.

'WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?' Joel commanded, facing the creature.

'Yeesh, kid, relax,' the creature said. He hovered back around to the front of the group.

'I'm Bill, and I'm your worst nightmare!' he replied with a manic laugh.

'Even worse than that poorly dressed ghost in the forest from before?' asked Wendy.

'Yeah, even better than Fre – '

A visor of sorts appeared around the Bill's eye, and he instantly stopped speaking, almost shutting down like a robot that lost power. From behind him, a figure materialized. He looked very similar to Stan, except he was wearing much heavier travelling clothes and was not as grey as him.

'Sorry I'm late,' he said, bringing the now motionless polygon down to the ground. Stan's mouth, now free of the zipper, widened into a smile.

o00o

They had called Stanley after the incident in the forest and asked him what he could do. Entirely out of worry for his grand-daughter, he had constructed a very crude mind-entering machine that allowed him to enter the mind of anyone close to him. Because of this, his figure was fuzzy, and he looked like someone from an old TV commercial. Apparently, he didn't have much time before the machine would become unsafe and he would have to leave.

'Ok, listen up people,' he said, gathering them around, 'Bro, I need you to incarcerate Bill, I don't know how he got out, but I knew as soon as I heard what was going on that it was him. You know what to do.'

Stanford nodded and picked up the pyramid and carried him out of the tent and into the fairground.

'Kids, I want you all to know that I love you – well, I don't know about Joel, I think it was; see, I don't even know his name yet.'

'It's Joel,' said the one in question. Stanley nodded at him.

'Just take care of yourselves. And Dipper, next time I don't want you hunting monsters you can't handle! We've already got a bunch of monsters in the house, we don't need any more.'

'You guys have captured monsters?' Joel asked, his eyes lighting up. Stanley nodded again.

'Oh yeah. We've got a hyperactive wild-child, a bookish nerd with a fashion loving girlfriend and a lumberjack's daughter. Not to mention the big hairy beast that manages the gift shop.'

They all laughed together. Joel felt like he belonged with these people. Even in this grey, depressing environment, they gave color to his world. As they laughed, the amphitheater gradually faded to white. Stanford reappeared, brushing his hands together.

'All done, brother,' he said, looking at his surroundings, 'and it looks like Mabel is waking up.'

'Good,' replied his brother, looking at his watch.

'I always forget the time is never right in the mindscape,' he commented, his watch showing 3pm in the afternoon. The others started to appear similar to Stanley – fuzzy and flashing into and out of existence.

'I'll see you around!' Stanley said, waving at them with his six fingered hands as he walked into the now completely white distance. Joel waved back and closed his eyes as he felt himself returning to the normal world.

o00o

Mabel rolled over. She had had a horrible dream, something about a terrifying creature that called itself the 'Dream Hipster'. She couldn't remember the last part of it, but she was happy that she didn't – nightmares were always bad to remember, lingering on bad thoughts didn't help with her happy and upbeat nature.

She could tell she was sitting in the lounge chair in the living room of the Mystery Shack. Her favorite torn spot where the fluff from inside the cushion came out was right behind her neck, and since she had ditched her long term trend of wearing turtleneck sweaters, it tickled her.

She giggled and her eyes fluttered open. In front of her, standing up and looking exhausted were Dipper, Pacifica, Stan, Wendy and Joel. All her friends were watching her. Had she been doing something in her sleep?

'Mabel!' exclaimed Joel, 'You're OK!'

'Of course, I'm OK, silly, or my name is Mabel Pi- '

She was interrupted by Joel pulling her up off of the chair and hugging her.

 _Success!_ she thought, followed by _Wait, why is he hugging me?_

Mabel didn't care what the reason was, she returned the hug and they would've stayed like that if Waddles had not wriggled his way in between Mabel's legs.

'Hello, you silly little pig,' she said over Joel's shoulder. Waddles went over to where Mabel could see him and got up onto his hind legs and tapped his front toes together – he wanted a hug too.

'Group hug!' called Wendy, and they all gathered around and joined in the embrace. Laughing and joking followed, and, being far too tired for sleep, the six of them sat down in front of the TV and watched the early morning re-runs of _Cash Wheel_.

It was going to be a good day.

 **Ta-da! That's the three-parter finished. I hope you guys liked it.**

 **I played around with a couple of ideas for this chapter and I'm pretty glad with the way it turned out. I probably won't write much more of Bill – he might show up again when I decide to finish this fic, but I can't tell at the moment.**

 **A happy ending is a good ending, right? Please leave a review if you can – any advice or comments help. Thanks!**

 **Cal Pal asked in the reviews what my nationality is: I'm Australian, but I'm writing with American spelling (because let's face it, the percentage of the views on this story in the US vs. everywhere else is its own story)**


	9. Ten Pins - Part 1

**Oh lawd, another multi-parter. I'd originally planned for this to just be a one-parter, but it kinda took too long and I wanted to put too much in. Stay tuned for part 2!**

Mabel rolled over in her bed and opened her eyes. She didn't need a clock, she just had to look at Waddles. He was laying on his back, on the floor and his tail was twitching a little. 7 am.

A week had passed since the nightmare. There was no sign of Bill or Freddy. Everything was back to normal. Mabel jumped more than enthusiastically out of bed and grabbed some clothes to put on. As she trotted down the stairs, she hummed to herself. She was going on a date today, with Joel!

Well, not exactly. Dipper had invited Joel to go ten-pin bowling at the Gravity Falls Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex, and Joel agreed without question. Mabel wasn't sure if he had any other friends in Gravity Falls, but he was certainly making it clear that he enjoyed hanging out with them.

Mabel knew he loved bowling as well, but that was beside the point.

Technically, she wasn't going on a date, so Pacifica couldn't stop her from being fluffy around Joel… but how to get rid of her and Dipper? It would take some serious plan –

'Paz! Hi! I didn't hear you! Why are you here so early?'

'Mabel, its 10 in the morning. We're leaving in half an hour.'

'Aw, really? Stupid clock doesn't work…' she replied, glaring down at Waddles, who had now shifted to laying on his side with his back legs sticking out, which would usually be 11 at night.

Pacifica shrugged and left the attic, calling out to Mabel as she left.

'You'd better hurry up Mabel, or we'll leave without you!'

'Yeah, I'm on it!' she shouted back. Mabel got dressed quickly, wearing appropriate clothes and spraying some of Dipper's deodorant over her skin so she didn't smell like pillows and Waddles when she went out. She went downstairs, wolfed down some cereal and ran out to the car.

'Hurry up, Mabel, we'll miss our session!' Joel called through the window. Mabel sprinted over to the car, pulled open the door and slid in next to Joel.

'Ah, thank God, I made it!' she said, leaning back in her chair and putting her arms behind her head as Stan sped down the drive.

'Uh, not quite Mabel,' said Pacifica, sitting on the other side of Joel. Mabel looked back at her with a frown.

Joel laughed when he realized Mabel wasn't wearing shoes – her socks were covered in dust and minute pieces of bark from the ground. Mabel couldn't help but laugh too. Lucky for her, they were going bowling, and the shoe hire there came free with games, so she should be alright, she'd just need to be careful when she was outside.

o00o

Stan pulled up at the bowling alley and gestured for the kids to get out.

'Thanks Mr Pines,' said Pacifica, waving at him. He rolled his eyes.

'Yeah, yeah, whatever,' he replied, waving his hand dismissively. 'I had to come out this way anyway, so don't push it.'

'Pick us up in two hours Stan! We'll keep ourselves occupied!' Dipper called after him. Stan grinned out the window and gave the thumbs up, driving off. Mabel turned to face the rest of them.

'Hurry! Let's get inside! This asphalt is boiling my socks!'

They walked to the sliding doors and entered. A blast of cool air greeted them as they came in – the room was lit in black-light, it smelt clean and polished. Joel could see the alleys in front of him, people were hurling their balls down the lane, fist-pumping and cheering ensued whenever a strike was made.

 _'_ _Wicked! Everything I love about a bowling alley!'_

Pacifica went to the counter and paid for her and Mabel (who was currently out of a job), and Dipper and Joel paid separately.

'Names?' asked the guy behind the counter. He was tall, had blonde hair and looked way too bored to be working.

'Lee?' asked Dipper, looking up at him. He turned around and his frown widened into a grin.

'Dipper! Dude, it's been forever! How's Wendy going?' the guy called Lee asked, holding out his hand.

'Yeah, she's going alright. You never told me why the gang split up, man, what happened?' Dipper replied. Lee shrugged.

'I'm not even sure I remember,' he said, 'you could probably ask Wendy, and she may or may not tell you, depending on what mood she's in.'

'OK, thanks. We'll just play as DIP, MAB, PAZ and JOEL.'

'Joel? Who's this new kid?' asked Lee, typing on the crude looking computer that was sitting behind the desk.

'He's a new employee at the Mystery Shack,' Mabel explained. Lee nodded thoughtfully as he hit the Enter key on his PC.

'You look after this lot, Joel, they're a pretty rowdy bunch.'

'I think I've already found that out,' Joel replied. He liked this Lee guy, he was friendly enough.

'Alright, guys, you're all set. You're down there on lane 7, enjoy your game!'

'Thanks, we will!' they called after him.

They hired shoes from the next counter and started to choose their balls. Dipper and Mabel had both gone with a 10 pound ball, each making sure they chose a different color. Joel had taken a while, but in the end he had chosen a marbled 11 pound-er with large finger holes. Pacifica had gone with a 12.

'You can manage a twelve?' asked Joel, putting his ball down on the collection area. Pacifica shrugged.

'My parents make me do tennis, and in bowling you use similar muscles so I guess my arms are kinda strong,' she explained, mimicking doing weights with her bowling ball.

'Oh, come on that's just showing off!' said Mabel, sitting down on the leather chair. Joel sat next to her, Pacifica stayed standing and Dipper went up to the control pad to start the game. He pressed the start button, and their lane lit up, the LED's on either side of the gutters coming to life and glowing a variety of colours, and the lights from the ceiling shining down onto the smooth wooden surface of the lane so that it was easier to see.

'Cool!' said Joel, leaning forward to get a better look.

Dipper had his turn first. He got up and took his ball in hand, charging down the floor and releasing the ball onto the lane. It traveled down at speed, and, although Joel thought his technique was a bit off, he still scored nine pins, barely missing the last one on his second roll.

'Alright! Let the professionals through!' said Mabel, marching up to the collection area and grabbing her ball from the rack. She weighed it up in her hands, breathed out, ran up to the lane and…

Stumbled. Somehow she managed to release the ball, but it had met with the gutter half-way down, and Mabel punched the ground, pouting as she sat on the ground.

Joel laughed and came over to help her. She took his hand and he pulled her up onto her feet. Joel stifled another chuckle, and Mabel looked at him crossly. She shoved him a little.

'What's so funny, funny man?' she asked. Joel smiled and shook his head, returning back to his seat.

' _I'll show him,'_ thought Mabel. She waited for her ball to come back, grabbed it when it did, made sure her laces were tied properly and took another shot at the pins.

Dead-center. She knocked down all the pins, and went up in a victory cheer. They clapped for her as she proudly marched back, sitting down again.

'OK, my turn,' said Pacifica, getting up. She had no problems managing her ball, and sent it down for a solid spare.

Joel got up and cracked his knuckles. He walked over the rack, grabbed his ball and approached the lane.

Mabel thought he moved quite gracefully. When small children and even some more inexperienced older players try to bowl, it is clumsy and very difficult to watch. Joel knew exactly what he was doing. He pulled the ball back, moving his leg out of the way to let it pass and launched it down the lane.

Strike. Straight off the bat. Joel turned around and walked back to his seat with a smile on his face. Mabel stared at him.

'You didn't even break a sweat!' she said. Joel shrugged.

'I play in a league back home, or at least I used to. I'm a little out of practice so I might not be as good as I could be, but I should do alright.'

"Alright" turned out to be a solid 233 pins by the end of the game. Pacifica had scored 154 and Dipper and Mabel had both landed at around the 140 mark.

'That was awesome Joel!' said Mabel as they started the next game, 'Can you teach me?' she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

'I dunno, Mabel, it'll take a lot of practice.'

Something was wrong with the control pad. Dipper was trying to start the next game, but for some reason, the control pad wasn't working. Pacifica got up to help him. Mabel decided that this was the time to make her move. She had to do something, trying to be friends with Joel was killing her. She checked again that Pacifica was pre-occupied, before leaning in closer to Joel's ear.

'Do you need incentive?' she asked. Joel apparently hadn't noticed her close proximity to him.

'What do you mea –'

Mabel leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Joel's cheeks flushed red, but he didn't think he wanted to kiss her back. She was his friend, and Joel's relationship status was… well, it was complicated. He turned his head and looked at Mabel with a confused look on his face. Mabel clearly only saw the crimson in his cheeks, and leaned in and kissed him again, briefly and sweetly on the lips, and her cheeks went hot too.

'Is that enough?' she asked, smirking at him without making eye contact. Joel struggled to find the words.

'M- Mabel, I…' he trailed off. A tear formed in his eye.

'What's wrong?' asked Mabel, taking her hand off his shoulder and moving it towards his own, trembling hand. She hesitated when she saw it shaking, giving Joel enough time to stand up and run, wiping his eyes dry as he did.

 **Woah, how about that for a cliff-hanger. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I'll be back with the next one soon. Tops to anyone who spots the Welcome to Night Vale reference. As always, reviews are much appreciated. Peace xo (** **damn, what a sexy tag, amirite? maybe I'll had this to all my chapters from here on out)**


	10. Ten Pins - Part 2

**This one is another hurt / comfort one. Last time I tried this (back in chapter 4), I didn't do all that well, but I'm pretty happy with this one. Anyway, enough rambling, get onto reading the chapter!**

Joel ran for home. He didn't know why. His parents were mad at him – why would he go home? He supposed he didn't have anywhere else to go. He didn't look around to see if Mabel was following him.

Mabel.

Why would she do that? He barely knew her! Sure, they were good friends and had bonded quickly, but he had known her for less than two weeks! His parents had lectured him about how you shouldn't date a girl right from the word go – because 99% of the time, it wouldn't work out. There would be differences and clashes and arguments and the relationship would be over before you knew it. He ran harder.

OK, maybe Mabel was just a little boy crazy. But isn't it generally a good idea to know whether or not someone already has a boyfriend or girlfriend before you go and make a move on them? Joel had had a girlfriend back in Tacoma – and before he left they made sure to keep in touch, and they had. He didn't know if a long distance relationship would work, and he was worried that they would split up eventually, but somehow, they had managed to talk to each other at least once a week in one form or another.

He found the house that they were renting, a sagging construction of bricks and timber with a small garden. He knocked on the door and heard his mother shuffling towards the door.

'Took your time! Finally came back to say sor …' she said as she opened the door, trailing off as she noticed the tears in her son's eyes.

'May I come in?' Joel whimpered. She looked anxiously at him and let him pass. Joel trudged into the living room and curled up on the couch. His mother called out to her husband.

'Honey, could you c'mere a minute?'

'Why? I've got work to do, you know that.'

'It's Joel, he's come home.'

'That little shit son of ours has come back to apologize, has he?'

Joel let out a little moan. He had never liked his father that much. He was relentless, that man. Joel started to wonder why he had come back here. His parent's wouldn't understand his situation, they hated him right now. His mother looked over at him awkwardly and walked down the hall to get his father. Joel took this opportunity to sneak upstairs to his room. He locked the door behind him and lay on his bed.

Joel had many coping mechanisms for when he wasn't feeling at his best, but the one he resorted to the most was screaming into his pillow. He buried his head into the pillowcase and yelled as loud as he could. He yelled at his father, his mother, his stupid decision at coming home and his stupid decision at running away in the first place. He yelled at Mabel – no, wait, he couldn't yell at Mabel. It wasn't her fault, she had no idea. He shouldn't vent his anger at her.

 _This isn't her fault, this isn't her fault, this isn't her fault…_ he echoed over and over in his head. He was finally starting to calm down when he heard a knock at the door.

'Go away!' Joel screamed at his parents. Another knock. Joel growled and stood up, still holding his pillow under his arm. He marched over to the door and put his mouth up to the edge of the doorframe.

'I SAID GO AWAY!' he repeated even louder. He sat down on the floor and started to cry again.

'Joel?' he heard from outside. It wasn't his mother's voice, but Joel could tell it was friendly. He staggered to his feet, unlocked the door and opened it.

It was Mabel. She looked horrible – her hair was roughed up and her face and eyes were red – evidently she had been crying too.

Joel broke down again and, dropping the pillow, he fell into her arms. He hoped that she wouldn't interpret it the wrong way. She didn't. She put her arms around him and patted his back to calm him down.

'I'm sorry,' she said, sniffing a little. Joel swallowed and wiped his eyes.

'I'm sorry too,' he replied. He pulled away and backed up to sit on his bed. Mabel leaned up against the doorframe and looked down at her shoes.

'I shouldn't have been hasty,' she said, kicking the ground. Joel shook his head and reached out for his pillow, throwing it back behind him onto his bed.

'It's not your fault, Mabel,' he said, 'I shouldn't have reacted like that. I just didn't know what to do because I already have a girlfriend back in Tacoma.'

Mabel raised her hand to her forehead and slapped herself. Of course! No wonder Joel ran away; he already had a girlfriend! Why didn't she make sure to check before she tried to make out with him? Ugh, she was such an idiot.

'I'm so sorry,' she said again, sitting down on the floor and fiddling with her socks, still dirty from earlier.

'I said already Mabel, it's not your fault,' he explained, laying back on his bed.

'Tell me about her,' she replied. Mabel didn't know if this was going to work, but she hoped that if Joel talked about his girlfriend, he might calm down a little.

'Oh, um…'

'What's her name?' she asked.

'Georgia,' he said.

'What does she look like?'

'She's shortish, has long strawberry blonde hair, a huge smile and these eyes that you could get lost it for hours…' he explained.

'Ooh, tell me more!' said Mabel, 'How did you guys meet?' Joel let out a little giggle and continued with his explanation.

'Through my bowling league actually, she joined the same day as me. We got to be friends pretty quickly, and we were pretty competitive. She'd beat me most of the time, but when I win I'd really rub it in.'

This was going well – Joel was calming down. Mabel continued to press harder.

'How'd you ask her out?'

'Oh, that's a good story too,' he laughed, 'it was during the semi-finals, about a year after we first met, and my team just needed one more win to get ourselves into the grand-final against the Seattle team. I decided that if we won, I would ask her out. I'd planned everything and I'd got really hyped for the game.'

Joel paused for a second, looking up at the ceiling.

'And? What happened?' asked Mabel.

'We lost. The Olympia team annihilated us. We were so humiliated, we'd thought we were going to win for sure. Anyway, we headed off to a park afterwards to celebrate how far we'd gotten, and after a few hours I was talking to her and it just kinda, slipped out. She said yes and within a few weeks we were fairly well cemented as a couple.'

Silence. Mabel let that sink in. A whole year! How could you wait that long to tell someone that you liked them, it would've been agony! But, listening to Joel gave her new perspective. He was in love with this girl, and now she felt bad about trying her luck on him. At least now she knew how he felt and why he was so cut up about her kissing him. Neither of them spoke for a little while.

'Mabel, can we still be friends?' asked Joel, sitting up on his bed.

'Of course, Joel, we can still be friends,' she replied, smiling at him and standing up. She turned around and started to leave.

'Thanks for talking to me, Mabel,' Joel called out after her. Mabel turned her head and nodded at him as she descended the stairs. As he heard the front door slam shut, he pulled out his phone and dialled Georgia's number.

 **Thanks for reading people! Remember to leave a review if you enjoyed the chapter, and please consider giving this story a favorite or a follow, it really encourages me to write more! Peace xo**


	11. Education Part 1

**Wow it's been a long time since I updated this. I'm struggling to find ideas for this story at the moment, and updating from here on out is probably going to be slow (sorry guys). This chapter is shortish because it's going to be part of a four part mini-series (gosh I'm really loving the multi-parters aren't I?). This first one is from Pacifica's point of view, and I'm going to do one for each of the main cast.**

Joel was late.

Dipper and Mabel had left early, and Joel assumed that he would be able to catch up to them because he lived closer, but he'd evidently lost track of time and was now sprinting his fastest along the road.

'Nice way to start at a new school, Joel…' he said to himself as he ran. Luckily for him, this was Dipper and Mabel's first year at Gravity Falls High School too, so he wouldn't need to try as hard to fit in with any previously obtained friends. Pacifica had managed to bribe the school to put the three of them in her home group, which was also good. He'd been to a couple of different high schools before and was familiar with the experience of starting afresh. This shouldn't be too crazy.

He heard the bell. That meant he was close. He should still be alright for the first day.

o00o

'Northwest?'

'Present,' said Pacifica, lazily raising her hand from the back of the class. Dipper and Mabel looked worried. The seat between them that they had reserved for Joel was still empty – Mr Lockwood had started without him. Knowing Joel, he'd show up at just the right time.

'Pines?'

'Yeah, I'm here,' said Dipper. Mabel stuck her tongue out at him. Mabel may have been twelve minutes older than Dipper, but his name still came first alphabetically.

'Odd name you got there, son,' said the teacher, double-checking his paper, 'you got a sibling?'

'That's me!' said Mabel, waving her arm around. Mr Lockwood looked up and nodded at the twins.

'Tran?'

'Here,' said another boy, twirling a pencil in his fingers.

'Ward?'

It was at that very moment that Joel entered the classroom. Pacifica was hoping for something a little more dramatic like the time he first ran into the Mystery Shack, but she smiled anyway. Mr Lockwood looked towards the door.

'Are you Joel?'

'Correct,' he replied, walking to his desk and sitting down. Dipper patted him on the back and the teacher shrugged.

'Good timing, a second later and you would be down for skipping class on the first day.'

'Well class, we may be a small bunch, but that's only going to make this year easier. My name is Mr Lockwood, and I'm going to be your home group and English teacher this year.'

He was right, the class wasn't large at all. Pacifica quickly counted and found that there were only fifteen students seated around the room. Gravity Falls was a small town, but considering that this was the only high school within fifty miles and the fact that only Pacifica's parents were just about the only people in town who could afford tutoring or home-schooling, it was surprising.

She didn't need to listen to Mr Lockwood go over the basics. Every student who had been to this school had heard them before, and paying attention to his droning would just make Pacifica drowsy. Instead, she found herself lost in thought about how her three friends would fit in here.

Mabel was fun and out-going, so she should have no problem making friends. She'd be well known within social circles within a couple of weeks as the girl with the crazy clothes and the glitter obsession. Pacifica imagined that some people will look up to her, and others will despise her, but that won't matter to her. Mabel despises nobody, so most likely the people who don't like her will just be jealous.

Dipper was awkward and a little nerdy, and Pacifica was worried that he'd struggle to make friends. However, with time, she thought it was possible that he could have a small group that he discussed movies and murder mysteries with and that he'd be quite happy. He'd just need to find the right people. If worse came to worse, he still had Mabel, and he'd never stop being friends with Mabel.

Joel she wasn't sure about. He was subject to mood swings, and could be happy one moment then angry the next, but he tried his best to stay calm. Pacifica really didn't know enough about Joel to make any assumptions about how he'd make friends. She supposed she'd have to leave it up to fate.

'… and that should be it,' Mr Lockwood concluded as the bell for first period rang out, the class beginning to shuffle out of their seats. 'Remember, if you're unhappy with anything, just come to me. Thank you.'

Pacifica smiled and slung the satchel that Mabel had made for her over her shoulder. This should make for an interesting year.

 **Yeah, it's short, I know, but this chapter is going to be part of a four-part school series, so bear with me. Now, excuse me while I go and study furiously for my exams. Remember to favorite** **and follow if you enjoyed it!**


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